The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed regulation that would revise wastewater discharge standards for facilities that process meat and poultry products. Many of these facilities are located near communities with environmental justice concerns that have bodies of water impaired by nutrient pollution. The agency’s proposal would leverage the latest pollution control technologies to cut the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and other pollutants discharged to the nation’s waters by approximately 100 million pounds of pollutants per year, improving water quality for downstream communities and ecosystems.
The board of the National Institute of Animal Agriculture recently approved forming a new Council: the Animal Disease Issues & Emergency Management Council. The purpose of the Council is to provide a forum for animal agriculture, animal health industry, regulatory veterinarians, government agencies and academia to identify and seek solutions to issues involving emerging and emergency animal diseases of significant concern to animal agriculture or public health both domestically and globally.
Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative announced Rachel Malcore as the newest addition to the company’s communication team. Malcore will serve as the public relations specialist. She plays an integral role in crafting strategic messaging and creating engaging content on behalf of the association and its affiliates.
Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative plans to expand its service offerings to support large farms in regulatory and permitting processes and has hired an experienced industry professional to head up the program. The new fee-based services will be available to guide farmers through the complexities of local and state permitting and various regulations for large farms, whether they’re expanding to the threshold of a confined animal feeding operation or reapplying for a CAFO permit.
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) emphatically commended the House of Representatives for taking a critical step toward improving child nutrition by approving the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act today with a commanding 330-99 bipartisan margin. The measure, led by Representatives GT Thompson, R-PA, and Kim Schrier, D-WA, expands the tools schools can use to deliver vital nutrition to students by increasing the variety of healthful milk options school can choose to serve.
Purdue University Extension is offering Purdue Beef Basics in the Eastern Corn Belt — a virtual, multi-session program aimed at the beef cattle industry that will take place in February and March.
More than 900 farmer and industry leaders recently gathered at the Sustainable Agriculture Summit held Dec. 6-7 in Charlotte, N.C. The Summit, in its ninth year, is co-hosted by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture and six other national ag organizations to convene the collective food and agriculture value chain to learn, develop and advance a shared vision for a sustainable and resilient U.S. food system. This year’s theme was “Scaling Collective Impact: Collaborating to Accelerate Agricultural Sustainability.”
The Animal Agriculture Alliance recently welcomed Logan Hall as director, membership and marketing. In this role, Hall will lead the development and execution of the Alliance’s membership and sponsorship recruitment, engagement, and retention strategies. He assumed his new role on December 11.
Alexis Main, an Oklahoma State University student, and Les Voyageurs, a Louisiana State University club, took home the top prizes in the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s 2023 College Aggies Online (CAO) scholarship program. Throughout the nine weeks, $20,000 was awarded in scholarships to participating students and clubs.
Updated research, supported by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, was released quantifying the U.S. poultry industry’s on-farm antibiotic use. The updated report shows further improved antibiotic stewardship and commitment to disease prevention within poultry production. As part of its commitment to the transparency and sustainability of a safe food supply, the poultry industry aims to strike a balance between the responsible use of antibiotics “medically important” to human health and keeping poultry flocks healthy.
Aivlosin WSG is a new option approved for controlling the pathogens that cause both swine respiratory disease (SRD) and porcine proliferative enteritis in groups of swine intended for slaughter and female swine intended for breeding. It is also approved for control of ileitis. The addition of females intended for breeding to the Aivlosin WSG label was approved recently in both the United States and Canada.
